So one of my partners was like he really needed to employ hands in his one year old company. He is a corporate entrepreneur and desires his venture to grow

into being a firm. Now he hires 2 staff one as a secretary and another as logistic officer. Good move. Problem is none of the hands he hires are as good as he is. He does the business development, facilitations and most of the correspondence. This got me thinking so what are you paying them for? When you can basically combine these tasks and save money.

Most corporate entrepreneurs fall victim of this, the idea of running an office with branches over the world seem to allure them into believing that we should setup a now now staffed up company before we have established a stable income source in the formative years. We sometimes think that more people equal more revenue as opposed to getting more revenue and increasing income of the few staff thereby motivating them to increase output which in turn creates more revenue.

LEAN means the founder does it all initially from sales to accounting to development.

This affords three opportunities

1. Saves Cost which can be ploughed back into the business

2. It affords the entrepreneur to keep a closer eye on the details of the business

3. It helps to form the company structure from a very informed perspective

Too many corporate entrepreneurs fall victim of this. Trying to put up the end from the beginning.

The owner of the idea is the best person to run the idea. Team is essential, but there is a limit to what team can do in terms of passion. The owner of the dream has infinite passion for his dream because it was conceived by him/her. But the aspect where he might miss it is the LEAN structuring. In as much as 2 heads are better than one, do not give a 50% stake of your business to a single person entity, this leaves you with 50% too. This totally negates the LEAN principle because you have to make decisions jointly, which sometimes may be at loggerhead with each other. One party may be going left and the other right, and if there is no cohesion the company may fall apart. It is better to stay alone and form out the structure of what you want first before you start bringing in operational staff. This way any staff brought in meets an existing Structure on ground and runs with it. This says Entrepreneurs have to be knowledgeable in every area of their business. Daily records, bookkeeping, accounting, marketing, sales etc. So that even when the company has been fully formed, he still has a working knowledge of each and every departmental functions and he is hardly cheated.

The idea of being called CEO from day 1, get into the head of too many burgeoning entrepreneurs and they fail to take it a step at a time. Having a LEAN structure helps you plan for unforeseen eventualities and manage them with minimal resources.

Bear in mind at the start you are a small entity and need a stable clientele base, this is more effective when you build personal relationships with your customers; this creates trust and loyalty for your brand and business. The best way to do this is to be personally involved from the onset not sending out representatives to meet with your first time customers to explain your own vision. Keep it LEAN do it all, lay the foundation first before building blocks of others on it.

There are many people like me who also attended a university or a college or a polytechnic. In today’s world, many countries don’t have enough jobs for

graduates of IT and or Business related courses. As a result many people stay more than three years or four years to work in the fields they studied in.

It is very possible for an engineering graduate or a biochemist to change fields and qualify for work in business related fields as well. I have seen many cases where certain jobs don’t require a bachelor of a master’s degree. These top 5 reasons are for those who are either afraid to start offering a service or selling a product.

Money is not the only factor why you should start a business. If you are considering a white collar career in the future or even branching into politics, you’ll want to consider this advice if you have no white collar jobs at the moment. If you start a business part time or full time you will be able to have the following skills which you can update your resume with them.

- Business Development and Strategy Skills

- Marketing Skills

- Recruitment Skills

- Project Management Skills

- Sales skills.

- IT skills.

Business Development and Strategy Skills:

Business development involves the conceptualizing of a business, planning and customer development of that business.

Marketing Skills:

Businesses succeed or fail if they cannot create awareness and convert that awareness to interest and also convert that interest to action. A new business has to go and find customers, marketing is one of the means to find customers. You’ll learn about the marketing channels, value propositions and customer segments and all other jargons that comes with each channel.

Recruitment Skills:

Depending on your customer acquisition channels and or your level of funding you’ll require either a programmer or a business developer or a salesperson or a marketer or designer or 3d animator or even a cofounder. You’ll need to source (recruitment jargons), profile, analysis and select the candidates and make your offer or sign a contract or a verbal agreement. A bad recruitment decision can also be very bad to your startup business.

You should add recruitment skills to your profile because you’ve done some level of recruitment.

Project Management Skills:

What is project management? Forget the expensive industry jargons and keep things simple. Project management is the act of managing projects. Amazingly recruitment is not explicitly included in project management but in some cases you’ll have to hire people to work on the project. In your new business you’ll need to manage the website creation and get it successful, you’ll need to get flyers designed, you’ll need to ensure you launch at a set date, place and time. You are managing projects.

The thing is associations of people who spend too much time studying try to create jargons and certificates to make money or keep their jobs. By reading a presentation on project management and carefully substituting it with everything you’ve done in starting a business, that qualifies you for certain level project management jobs.

Better than not doing anything and waiting for more than one year.

Sales skills:

There are different types of sales jobs, the highly organized type of sales jobs where there are long scripts and involves a lot of telephone calls. There is also the not so organized sales jobs where you can write a little script, use it to book meetings with customers or sell directly over the phone. There is also the sales which involves face to face selling on the streets or markets or event locations.

As a business owner you are your company ‘s or business’s number one salesperson. If you research on making telesales and practice it for your own benefit, that skill will be valuable on your resume.

IT Skills:

I am of the opinion that every business needs a website. Ok, maybe not every business. Depending on your distribution channels and or your funding, you might have to learn HTML/CSS or Ruby on Rails or Photoshop or other IT skills you'd never thought were possible. While some of these skills may be hard to learn and be proficient on. Being proficient on certain skills depend on your time, inputs, drive and analytical abilities. Some skills depend entirely on your eye for designs.

You might be able to add these skills to your resume and they’ll help you at some point.

Start a business not so you’ll fail, start it to succeed but if you don’t, it is not the end of the world and you should capitalize on it. I am not just presenting to you an idea of something I haven’t tried.

My first article I ever wrote on this blog focused on myths about entrepreneurs. Further than that, there are also myths I would still like to focus on. There are a lot

of myths about being an entrepreneur; most spawned by the media. While some of these are true, others are patently false. Let’s look at the following

Myth #1: Entrepreneurs want money. Period.A lot of people think entrepreneurs are in it solely for the money. This is true to an extent—fear of poverty, or simply financial insecurity, might well goad anyone to greater heights, and there are some who do it for the cash, but for most people, money is not the be-all and end-all. A lot of entrepreneurs have ego and/or emotion as their primary motives, many don’t maintain the lavish lifestyles expected of them, and most consider money as a way of keeping score.

Myth #2: My gain, your loss.People often refer to success in business at the cost of someone else. What they mean, obviously, is that if an entrepreneur is winning, someone somewhere has paid the price. This makes it seem like there has to be a winning and a losing side in every business deal. This is sometimes called the ‘zero-sum game’. In actual fact, entrepreneurs are creative thinkers. Rather than play for a ‘zerosum’ result, and contrary to popular supposition, they often try to work out a compromise that means everybody leaves the table satisfied.

Myth #3: The greater the risk, the greater the reward.A lot of young entrepreneurs, having heard this, accept it as gospel truth. A relationship between risk and reward is complicated and in no way reducible to a simple statement. Risks in business don’t equalize jumping off a cliff in the dark. Knowledge, experience, wisdom hard work and perseverance modify both the ‘risk’ and the ‘reward’.

Myth #4: Entrepreneurs get rich fast.The rise of ‘dotcom millionaires’ definitely makes it seem like entrepreneurs make a quick buck, but you should remember nothing is as easy as it seems. You may think that entrepreneurs get extremely rich extremely fast, but a lot of hard work goes into developing the ideas/products that make them rich.

Myth #5: A good business plan is the entrepreneur's critical roadmap to success.This has more truth than most of the other myths, as you’re unlikely to be given loans without a solid business plan. However, a loan does not in any way equal good money. Business plans are guidelines, yes, but to succeed, you need a lot more.

I advise aspiring would be entrepreneurs to get into entrepreneurship from a very clear place perspective. Be convicted, be concerned about the need you intend to satisfy and be up to date with current industry best practices. Have a joy entrepreneurship ride.

Eagles are large, powerful, resilient, courageous, daring and ever-soaring birds of prey. They have seven principles that have made them the greatest birds. These principles are

important for success in business and entrepreneurship. These principles are as follows:

Principle One:Eagles fly alone at high altitude and not with sparrows or other small birds. No other bird can go to the height of the eagle. Stay away from Sparrows and Ravens. Eagles fly with Eagles. As an entrepreneur or an aspirant for success in business soar high on your goals, objectives and targets even if it means soaring alone and stay away from people who will bring you down or do not fly on the same high altitude like you.

Principle Two:Eagles have strong vision. They have the ability to focus on something up to five kilometers away. When an eagle sites his prey, he narrows his focus on it and set out to get it. No matter the obstacles, the eagle will not move his focus from the prey until he grabs it. Therefore, Have a vision and remain focused, no matter what the obstacle and you will succeed.

Principle Three:Eagles do not eat dead things. They feed only on fresh prey. Vultures eat dead animals, but eagles will not. Therefore, steer clear of outdated and old information. Always do your research very well.

Principle Four:Eagles love the storm. When clouds gather, the eagles get excited. The eagle uses the storms wind to lift it higher. Once it finds the wind of the storm, the eagle uses the raging storm to lift him above the clouds. Therefore, we can use the storms of life to rise to greater heights. Achievers relish challenges and use them profitably.

Principle Five:The Eagle tests before it trusts. When a female eagle meets a male and they want to mate, she flies down to earth with the male pursuing her and she picks a twig. She flies back into the air with the male pursuing her. Once she has reached a height high enough for her, she lets the twig fall to the ground and watches it as it falls. The male chases after the twig. The faster it falls, the faster he chases it. He has to catch it before it falls to the ground. He then brings it back to the female eagle. The female eagle grabs the twig and flies to a higher altitude and then drops the twig for the male to chase. This goes on for hours, with the height increasing until the female eagle is assured that the male eagle has mastered the art of catching the twig which shows commitment. Then and only then, will she allow him to mate with her. Whether in private life or in business, one should test commitment of people intended for partnership.

Principle Six:The Eagle Prepares for Changes. When ready to lay eggs, the female and male eagles identify a place very high on a cliff where no predators can reach. The male flies to earth, picks thorns and lays them on the crevice of the cliff, then flies to earth again to collect twigs which he lays in the intended nest. He flies back to earth and picks thorns laying them on top of the twigs. He flies back to earth and picks soft grass to cover the thorns. Adjust and Adapt to Changes.

Principle Seven:The Eagle Knows when to Retire. When an Eagle grows old, his feathers become weak and cannot take him as fast as he should. When he feels weak and about to die, he retires to a place far away in the rocks. While there, he plucks out every feather on his body until he is completely bare. He stays in this hiding place until he has grown new feathers, then he can come out. We occasionally need to shed off old habits and items that burden us without adding to our lives.

Think About This…

“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up knowing it must run faster than the fastest lion or be killed and every morning a lion awakens knowing it must outrun the slowest gazelle or starve to death. It doesn’t matter if you are a lion or a gazelle. When the sun comes up, you’d better be running.” - Anonymous

It was Mother Teresa who said, “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples” a statement which is

profoundly true. I ask: what do people often mean by ‘change the world’? The paraphrase has been the creed of most entrepreneurs you would think they all agree to its extant meaning. I tell you what, if you set out to change the world, you’re not going to do it, it is not going to happen, except of course, the world is your pocket watch and you have the innate ability to reverse the flow of natural phenomenon, such as, the hand of time. If ‘change the world’ means starting your own company, you still can’t change the world, you can’t change everything or everyone, but, you can change the people who matter!

Real change is about people - changing people's actions, perceptions or the conversation. Successful change is almost always specific, not general. You don't have a chance to make mass change, but you can make focused change.

With regards to marketing and branding, regardless of your ideas, tactics and strategies, marketing is about creating market - branding is about creating reputation. The former without the latter is empty. And the latter without the former is deafeningly mute. To be sure, good branding can make people pay more for one product or service than another similar product or service. Branding is about emotion, and emotion turns prospects into buyers. It is about being recognized and being different- and that, my friend - can make a differential change.

Apple, a computer company, we may say, changed the world because its innovation is pretty much the way different people at various time and same people at the same time interact with a computer today. It established a reputation for shaking up the tech industry by thinking differently.

According to Panos Mourdoukoutas, a business and investment strategist, “Apple’s chief critical success factor lies in its vaunting ability to consistently deliver very high quality values at very rational prices with very long product longevity and durability. Apple treats its customers as if they are modern day deities.”

Create a bond with customers, interact, listen, act, be the change, lead the change and ‘change the world’ (laughs).

If brevity is the soul of wit, I leave you with a quote from one of the finest thinkers mankind has produced……“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”– Albert Einstein

Wait a minute! Can I pose this question to you? What is your disposition to life when you have handful piece of information which should serve as knowledge at

your disposal? Or how do you roll with such piece when in direct contact with issues of life? Answers to these question will determine how you turn the knowledge you have into working tools that should serve in transforming your life beyond the status quo.

Come to think of it, opportunity favours only those who are prepared in life. As such we all at each point must develop capacity to contain the handful knowledge at our trust into workability model. This must develop us and bring us to the platform where we deploy it for service to humanity. May I at this point invite you to come and let’s get into the flow! You’ve known all the talk, made all the talk and talk all the talk. But there remains a salient issue? Talk without concerted effort of work is just like a mere shout that goes nowhere far except where you are. Your talk will only be meaningful if it is worked out on a larger plain of action. People will turn your direction when they know you've got the capacity to solve their problems, that is just the simply way how positive influence work.

Those who will contain capacity are the dogged folks resilient in pushing beyond the limit. No lifestyles of comfortability, convenience hold space for these folks; status quo doesn’t define the height they can attain in life. I learned this maxim of life in a hard way that you can’t grow beyond your capacity; it is what you have strength for that get reproduce in and around you. There exist a platform each of us possess where we ought to hone our positive impact to wider scope of audience who must benefit from our services to humanity.

Passion without knowledge CAN’T be said to be sufficient in getting along life’s voyage. In my little stay in life, I’ve come to discover and see folks who want to get effective result based on zeal without a cause. But here’s the muse: it is in true light of knowledge that defines the spot where we channel our zeal on. It’s better to wake a sleeping lion who will be alive and full of strength to act than bringing to life back a dead sheep that is lazy to do nothing.

I close this thought with the word of a British Poet and inventor, Jacob Bronowski which state that “Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty.” So join in the flow of turning knowledge to a working tool where you reel out action needful from it and SERVE IT OUT FOR HUMANITY CONSUMPTION. It’s a journey from the start to finish, so through it all walk the talk, lead the change!

Everyone seems to have a dream, even an insane man do have a vision. Certainly when asked the question: do you have a dream? A ’Yes’ response well up in us but

come to think of it, not every individuals have got to give what it take to birthing a vision and achieving it. Some hallucinate in the night thinking they are dreaming of a vision while some are day thinker birthing new innovation – vision and seeing to its actualization by the day. You can equally place yourself on the group you are! Let’s redefine vision:

It’s a component dimension that makes us export our ideologies, principle beyond our present reach to future time. Vision is the ability to forecast into the future and live its reality while still in the present, an expression of the mind geared towards building an empire with future in view.

In life, each step or phase we attain is always a defining moment that either make or mar us. Its ‘making us’ is the concept that defines what vision we need catch from such crucial moment in life. Without a defining moment in life, vision can’t be said to exist because time is the determinant factor of how vision is being birthed and spelt out its terms and conditions. So at dawn of each day, what you have defined as vision is redefined into fitting in what it ought to be. Each day is making it fitted better and getting the attention it need get for its attainment.

Vision should be:

1. Realistic: Your vision must not be a fantasy full of promises or condition that can’t be achieved, it must be real to yourself, others and humanity. For it not to be real is you giving your life a chance of luck and your life is never defined as a function of luck. Luck is not a product in life even if your name might sound ‘Goodluck’. Everyone that has got good achievements in life where at a point favoured by God who gave them opportunity, has make good use of any opportunity that stumbled their way and have always put dimension of work into their life. How do you know if it’s real? It must be something that is worth running for, that can be achieved and that can get attention of people for them to see and support. First thing in making a vision realistic is to put down your thoughts irrespective of how vague or unheard-of it may be. In essence, what you are penning down are not just mere words with grammatical fluency but strong indication of the cause you’re being sold out to. The words are your feedin point that daily fuel your intention in pursuing a goal greater than you. Anything you can see beyond your mental scope, always write it down for there might be iota of vision in it. Then it must be greater than you so you can stretch forth your horizon in thinking beyond the now ‘cause anything that has to do with the now is not a function of vision.

2. Reliable: This is quite different from been realistic. What makes a vision reliable is ability to provide an accurate or correct picture over times. In other words, consistency is the idea. Vision must be able to maintain a pattern, paradigm shift or standard overtime with minimal variation taking place not to cause alteration to it but to help in shaping it becoming perfectly whole as the days goes by. So the response it generated yesterday should still be today’s response though there might be a slight change but all is still in sync with the actual picture of the vision. Whenever there is a deviation from the actual picture of your vision then the vision is not reliable or consistent to what it ought to be, the deviation is prone to cause change from the actual picture making its kind of mirage than been a vision.

3. Valid: Validity here implies that your vision is able to achieve what it is purported to achieve. This goes on to suggest that it is result oriented thought which has an end in view though it might take time. Time is the proof of your vision. What will make it valid is discipline and work, through discipline to rule of work you stick to the vision and get a rewarding end in terms of the result it produce at the final analysis.

4. Focus: Right language or concept that quantify the flow of vision with no sign of distraction even is FOCUS. Mirage is different from being focused on a goal, focus comes with real definition of what you want or need to see though still vague while mirage is just vague and nothing to redefine from it as what one intends to see.

True Story: I have a friend who once wrote JAMB (The official examination to secure admission into a University in Nigeria) about the same time as me. Back then, I asked

him what course he wanted to read and he said "my guy, any course!” Well he read "any course", he applied to "any school". He graduated with "any grade". And today's he's currently all over the place, looking for "any job"... #sad

Plan. Live on purpose.My dear, life is a market place and you are your own business. You are a product with a life cycle. And, at every point, you are totally responsible for your own sale.

A few days ago, I was with my baby niece , eating her Pringles and watching Tom and Jerry.... And it hit me: Do dogs really like bones??? Well, the cartoon Tom and Jerry makes us believe that dogs love bones. But dogs actually prefer meat, they only take bones because they do not have a choice!

In life, choose to have a choice for even indecision is a decision not to decide. If you can't define where you are going to, then everywhere you get to would look like it.

Even with business and money, if you don't define where your money should be going, you'd end up wondering where it went. Follow your purpose, create the right plans, the right steps, follow the right principles and things will be alright.

1. Self-starters:Successful people don't wait for someone else to tell them what to do, or when to do it — they take action themselves. When you're a self-starter, you look for

opportunities all around you, and when you identify one, you act. That's the essence and the fuel for success in business and in life.

2. Resourceful:Successful people don't let problems or obstacles get in their way or slow them down. They're resilient — they try a variety of different solutions until they find one that works, and they never give up.

3. Enthusiastic:Successful people have real passion and enthusiasm for the work they do, and they aren't afraid to let it show. Their enthusiasm is real — it comes from their hearts — and it's infectious, spreading to coworkers and customers alike.

4. Innovative:Successful people are creative and innovative. Instead of doing things the same way over and over again, they look for better, faster, and lower-cost solutions to common problems. They experiment and are willing to take risks — and occasionally fail — in pursuit of their goals.

5. Team players:Successful people know that they can&#039;t do it all themselves. By leveraging the power of teamwork, they can achieve far more than they ever could alone. So they join or put together teams of talented and energetic individuals who can help them achieve their goals.

6. Articulate:Successful people are good communicators — they know what to say, how to say it well, and who to say it to. They're also good listeners — taking

7. Networked:Successful people build extensive networks of contacts — both in the office, and outside of it. They leverage their network to help them take advantage of opportunities, and to solve problems.

My baby steps, I hope you find them useful and applicable to you also.

Step 1: Create and hold a picture of where you want to be long enough in your mind and you'd have

succeeded with the first steps of given it the power to exist, its life's ultimate law of attraction. Learn to dream

Step 2: After the dream, stay focused, consistently remembering that image of where you want to be. Plan, be ready to take action, start.

Step 3: Once you initiate an action, keep going. Stick to your goal especially when you're sure it’s worth it. Do not be distracted by others. Think out of the box. Do not allow the outside noise drown your inner voice. Don't allow your happiness come from the admiration and approval of other people. With people and things, be open to everything and attached to nothing.

Step 4: Prioritize, not everything that is counted counts, don’t sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things. Be deep, be serene, be aware and be sound. Create a hold, create networks, create alliances, create your networks and then create your own world.

Step 5: Be emotionally intelligent. Most people are more sentimental than logical, most people blindly judge by feelings and appearance but on the other hand, you'd be judged mostly by actions and not intentions, so wake up to taking the advantages

Step 6: Define yourself, who you are and want to be. Be "you"nique, be a brand. Be creative with your approach but first, be strategic with your moves. Go further ahead, be flexible. Learn to learn, unlearn, and relearn. It’s okay to make mistakes, just make adjustments then make your way back, conquer!

Step 7: Be in continuous improvement (Kaizen). Keep going. Be on the look out for what to start, what to stop and what to keep doing for we are nothing but what we repeatedly do.